Irish

Etymology

Middle English Irisce (12th c.), from Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Éire (“Ireland”)), from Proto-Celtic *Īwerjū (“fat land, fertile”), from Proto-Indo-European *pi-wer- (“fertile”), from *peyH- (literally “fat”), akin to Ancient Greek πίειρα (píeira, “fertile land”), Sanskrit पीवरी (pīvarī, “fat”).

Pronunciation

• audio (US)

  (file)

• enPR: ī'rĭsh, IPA^(key): /ˈaɪɹɪʃ/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪɹəʃ/

Proper noun

Irish

1. The Goidelic language indigenous to Ireland, also known as Irish Gaelic.

   Irish is the first official and national language of Ireland.

2. A surname​.

Noun

Irish (countable and uncountable, plural Irishes)

1. (as plural) The Irish people.
   • 2015 March 1, John Oliver, “Infrastructure”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 4, HBO:

     America used to love dams... Yes, and we built those dams with ingenuity and brawn and, of course, piles and piles of dead Irish.

2. (uncountable, obsolete) A board game of the tables family.
3. (uncountable, US) Temper; anger, passion.
   • 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Nebraska, published 1987, page 65:

     But her Irish was up too high to do any thing with her, and so I quit trying.

   • 1947, Hy Heath, John Lange, Clancy Lowered the Boom:

     Whenever he got his Irish up, Clancy lowered the boom.

   • 1997, Andrew M. Greeley, Irish Lace, page 296:

     The Priest is as fierce a fighter as I am when he gets his Irish up.

4. (countable, uncountable) whiskey, or whisky, elaborated in Ireland.
   • 1889, Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men In A Boat:

     Harris said he'd had enough oratory for one night, and proposed that we should go out and have a smile, saying that he had found a place, round by the square, where you could really get a drop of Irish worth drinking.

Adjective

Irish (comparative more Irish, superlative most Irish)

1. Pertaining to or originating from Ireland or the Irish people.
   • 1992 April 26, "Hot Off the Press" Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 5:

     A. Fink-Nottle: But it's absolute balderdash, Bertie. I mean, listen to this: "Sure and begorrah, I don't know what's after being the matter with you, Michael." I mean, what on earth is this "what's after being" stuff mean?
     B.W. Wooster: My dear old Gussie, that is how people think Irish people talk.

   Sheep are typical in the Irish landscape.

2. Pertaining to the Irish language.
3. (derogatory) nonsensical, daft or complex.
   • 1995, Irving Lewis Allen, The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech:

     The slur continued with Irish confetti, a popular term for paving stones or Belgian bricks that were laid in New York streets beginning about 1832.

See also

• Erse
• Gaelic
• Wiktionary's coverage of Irish terms
• Appendix:Irish Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Irish

Further reading

• Irish–English Dictionary: from Webster’s Dictionary — the Rosetta Edition.
• ISO 639-1 code ga, ISO 639-3 code gle
• Ethnologue entry for Irish, ga

Anagrams

• Rishi, rishi, sirih

Etymology 1

From English Irish, from Middle English Irisce, from Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Éire (“Ireland”)), from Proto-Celtic *Īwerjū (“fat land, fertile”), from Proto-Indo-European *pi-wer- (“fertile”), from *peyH- (literally “fat”).

Etymology 2

From English Irish. Also a corruption of Iris.